Deven Lindemann of Datasite On 5 Ways To Create a Wow! Customer Experience

Deep personalization: Customers want human, personalized, and relevant experience that saves them time by minimizing complexity and anticipates their needs. This means building relationships from the very first customer interaction, and using data and automation, plus intelligence from every interaction, to make that user a customer for life.

As a part of my series on “How to Create a Wow Customer Experience,” I had the pleasure of interviewing Deven Lindemann, Datasite Chief Customer Success Officer.

Deven Lindemann is Chief Customer Success Officer at Datasite, ensuring customers receive best in class service and support. She works closely with the Datasite product and sales teams to identify and solve client requirements and execute global training programs to support agile product releases. Under her leadership, the unrivalled mergers and acquisitions (M&A) expertise of Datasite, also known as Datasite Assist, has become a key differentiator in the market.

Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

I started my career at a company focused on providing regulatory filing, disclosure and other capital transaction management services. As these activities moved online, I began helping customers navigate the transition and found that I really enjoyed the combination of providing process expertise and supporting customers in assisting with their success. I’ve been making the impossible possible since then, no matter what the size of the customer challenge or request. At Datasite, I love helping and delighting customers. I am a firm believer in building relationships with customers and know this is a differentiator for our business and for me personally.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?

I learned a valuable lesson when we were working to fulfill a requirement disclosure for a customer, and we missed the deadline. We explored several alternatives without luck. I remember sharing the news with the customer as well as the options we had explored. His response stayed with me. A great service provider isn’t just measured by the fact you get everything right, it’s measured by the efforts taken when things go sideways. The customer wasn’t especially happy with missing the deadline, but he did say he would never pick another provider because he understood we had his success in mind with the choices that we made.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

I’m grateful to have had the privilege to learn from so many leaders, so picking just one is difficult. I wouldn’t be where I am today without any of them, as they passed on some invaluable lessons that I still think about to this day. These include surrounding yourself with smart people and empowering them. Often your team is your strongest asset and a problem shared is a problem solved. Another one that I’ve liked a lot over the years is don’t be afraid to fail or make changes if a plan doesn’t work. Lastly, always keep the customer front and center. Service isn’t about internal processes and procedures. It’s about the customer. You keep that in mind, and the solution often becomes clear.

Thank you for that. Let’s now pivot to the main focus of our interview. This might be intuitive, but I think it’s helpful to specifically articulate it. In your words, can you share a few reasons why great customer service and a great customer experience is essential for success in business?

A positive customer experience is crucial to the success of any business because a happy customer is one who is likely to become a loyal customer who can then help boost revenue. It’s also a way of standing out from competitors. As more brands compete for public attention and more options are readily available, great customer service and great customer experience can position a company’s brand or products at the top of the customer’s list.

We have all had times either in a store, or online, when we’ve had a very poor experience as a customer or user. If the importance of a good customer experience is so intuitive, and apparent, where is the disconnect? How is it that so many companies do not make this a priority?

Business today has many competing priorities. With interest rates still rising alongside higher operational cost, business leaders must balance cost effectiveness with investments in capabilities that enhance their resilience. Digitizing processes that support effectiveness is key to this resiliency, and one area where this should take place is with the customer experience. For example, at my company, Datasite, a cloud-based provider of software and services for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) professionals, we made the decision several months ago to continue to invest in innovation to help our dealmaking customers work smarter while also digitizing all our operations to improve our customer and employee experience, which will significantly support our growth but also drive down costs. Not every company may be in the position to do this but in the long term, we know that by creating more efficiencies, we are positioning ourselves for success.

Do you think that more competition helps force companies to improve the customer experience they offer? Are there other external pressures that can force a company to improve the customer experience?

There are several ways a company can differentiate itself from its competitors, including through products, customer experience, channel distribution, relationships, reputation, and price. Increased competition can certainly push companies to make changes to any of these areas, as can other factors such as market conditions. For example, following the global pandemic, no company or business is the same as it was three years ago. Yet while some were challenged, others thrived, igniting expanded growth from new products or services, which bolstered both customers and revenue. At Datasite, we invested in our customer experience, recognizing that a customer’s experience with an organization is only as good as an employee’s experience with that organization. When employees feel supported, they are more likely to provide positive customer experiences. To support this strategy, we created a new customer success team, that pairs customers who are using more than one Datasite application with a designated support team member to spur increased adoption and retention. Though the current team is small, they’ve already having a big impact, with our net promoter scores, or the likelihood that customers will recommend Datasite, measuring well above industry standards. Additionally, we’ve revamped the structure of our Datasite Assist team providing a dedicated resource, or Project Pro, for all new projects created on our platform. The Project Pro offers proactive support, reaching out to all users to offer an onboarding call, a key differentiator.

Can you share with us a story from your experience about a customer who was “Wowed” by the experience you provided?

We received a high customer satisfaction rating from a client who had contacted us for support on chat. We solved his problem with ease, but the magic was in the feedback he left us in our survey. When we asked how his chat experience could have been better, he replied, “Serve hot chocolate with the chat?” Since it was right before the holidays, and we want to show our customers that we’re really listening to their feedback, we sent him a holiday hot chocolate tin collection as a thank you. He was blown away by our gesture and I think it’s safe to say he is now a customer for life.

Did that Wow! experience have any long-term ripple effects? Can you share the story?

Thankfully we’ve had a few examples where our going the extra mile has really led to very positive outcomes. For example, one client, on a very tight deadline, needed help with getting the data room set up as well as help building out extensive folder structures. We helped the customer get this done very quickly and she responded by saying, “You killed it! Very helpful and saved me some sleep tonight!” This is just one example, but it illustrates how the service we provide not only helps the customer complete tasks that are part of her job, but also reduces stress and helps her to have a better work life balance. We could have said no to the request, but we want our customers to succeed. It’s all about understanding customer challenges and doing a little extra. When that happens, you can have a significant impact.

Ok, here is the main question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a business leader should know in order to create a Wow! Customer Experience. Please share a story or an example for each.

There are several ways business leaders can create fabulous customer experiences. It starts by reviewing customer-facing processes and finding new ways to refresh and digitize them, reinvigorating goals, and metrics for customer success teams, and providing deep personalization and proactive care. Following are a few examples of these strategies in action.

Power on-demand support with technology: A good customer experience includes giving customers a choice on how they want to engage with support. Some may want to engage directly with a customer support team member while others want to a more self-directed experience. Providing customers with options allows the business to meet customers where they want to work. That’s why at Datasite, we’ve recently expanded our Datasite Assist portal to include resources to help our customers solve problems, such as scheduling custom training sessions, accessing virtual data room best practices, or downloading invoices for review. Of course, they can also use online chat to interact with a Project Pro, too.

Engaged employees make a difference. Creating and sustaining a culture where employees understand that great service must be part of every interaction with customers is critical. Likewise, support employees by giving them the right tools for the right job. Streamlining the technology they use, as well as simplifying tasks and actions, gives them more time to support the customer. At Datasite, we’ve found this applies no matter if they are providing training, working on behalf of a customer, or helping them adopt new functionality to increase their productivity.

Deep personalization: Customers want human, personalized, and relevant experience that saves them time by minimizing complexity and anticipates their needs. This means building relationships from the very first customer interaction, and using data and automation, plus intelligence from every interaction, to make that user a customer for life.

Proactive care: When a customer purchases multiple applications, they may need additional support in navigating and using them. At Datasite, this means pairing these customers with a designated success resource that knows them, their workflow, and is a business partner who can help them realize value and reach their goals. Also, beginning next month, Datasite customers using more than one Datasite application will receive proactive on-boarding support and one point of continuity care when they begin new projects.

Are there a few things that can be done so that when a customer or client has a Wow! experience, they inspire others to reach out to you as well?

Absolutely! In fact, I’m reminded of a comment a client made about the team’s responsiveness and “24/7 availability of a human, and not just a BOT exchange.” Her comment stands in contrast to the experience so many people have, which can include participating in endless interactive voice response selections or forever listening to hold music. While some service organizations want to deflect the client from actually speaking with a human, or in the case at Datasite, member of Datasite Assist, we encourage it. This is the reason why my teams exists. Datasite Assist experts are always ready at a moment’s notice to help clients with whatever they need. Wow! experiences are not rare for us. They’re an everyday occurrence.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Research shows that innovation best happens when differing perspectives and diversity of thought are supported. So, to be innovative today, companies and leaders must foster a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion. At Datasite, I’ve had the incredible opportunity to lead important discussions on women in the workplace and in M&A in support of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month and look forward to supporting more of these timely conversations later this year.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

I’m happy to exchange ideas and discuss best practices on LinkedIn.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!